Very nice series! It's interesting that the woodpeckers can adjust to urban life as well as the squirrels around our office. I love the babies, though I'm not surprised that you said they were gone a week later - they don't look very baby-like.

I have what's probably a dumb question - how often are nests re-used? There are a couple of nests in a sycamore tree outside our office that have been there for several years, and I wonder if they are used any more. I thought last year one of them might belong to a couple of crows that were around constantly, but I haven't noticed any birds hanging around this year (but then, I'm not much of a birder, so there could be a nesting pair under my nose and I wouldn't necessarily notice). I just wondered if it would be worth keeping a closer eye on them in the future.

Harriet, nest cavities are always reused, if not by the woodpeckers that made them, then byother hole-nesting species suchas Bluebirds, Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, and wrens (but not Crows). Unfortunately, the introduced English (House) Sparrows and Starlings also use them, and aggressively usurp occupied cavities for themselves. Were it not for the profusion ofhuman maintained artificial nest boxes (which also involves cleaning out the sparrows and Starlings) Martins, Bluebirds, and perhaps othersmight be verging on extinction.

Was (and sort of still am) having slow connection problems. I saw this series earlier and thought I'd responded. But, here goes.

These are great. It's nice to go back and watch them over a period of time. I've been watching the geese in the area "grow up". Haven't always had my camera with me or the time to photograph them, but drive by every day and take a peak.